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In a First, Sony Pays Theater Chains
To Play a Preview for 'The Animal'

By

John Lippman Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated May 24, 2001 12:01 a.m. ET

Breaking with longstanding practice in the movie business, Sony Pictures Entertainment earlier this month paid four big theater chains to play a preview for its summer comedy "The Animal."

The move has been met with dismay by Sony's rivals because the preview game has long been one in which no money has changed hands between studios and exhibitors. According to people familiar with the situation, Sony wrote checks to some...